I Woke Up Feeling Thailand

A hilarious tale of cheap drugs, cheap sex and teaching English - on the cheap! More

A hilarious tale of cheap drugs, cheap sex and teaching English - on the cheap!

The first edition of "I Woke Up Feeling Thailand" was written between 2002 and 2004, after the author returned from an eye-opening stint observing the lifestyles of English teachers in the Kingdom of Siam.

After making the short-list for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Novel, the manuscript was soon picked up by Sid Harta Publishers in Hartwell, Australia (but published in hard copy only) in December 2004, and that's how the life of Dr Bruno Starrs' first ever full-length novel began.

So what's the "I Woke Up Feeling Thailand" story?

Cover Blurb: "Thailand has many attractions. For Candy, straight from a Texas trailer park, it's the cheap drugs. For Leo, a hip-hoppin' California dude, it's the cheap drugs and the cheap sex. For Bayard, a pompous graduate of Cambridge with a major in Inconsequential Semantics, it's the opportunity to make a small fortune out of the English-teaching industry ... on the cheap. But for all three, Thailand is where blue-eyed, blonde-haired Westerners such as they have been mysteriously disappearing ..."

Back in 2004, reviewers were saying things like:

"A remarkable new talent. Starrs' hilarious parody of Westerners adrift in small town Thailand is destined to become a backpacker's favourite" - Barry Scott, Founder "Transit Lounge Publishing" and author of "Love and Wigs: Poems of Bangkok, Bollywood and Beyond" (Transit Lounge, 2003).

Dr D. Bruno Starrs was born in Adelaide, South Australia, in a hospital. It was a year he cannot remember very well. He is happily married but childless (thankfully so, if the reader is a believer in the principles of Darwinian evolution) and irresponsibly itinerant compared to most people of his alleged experience and advanced age. It must also be noted that Dr Starrs is a mongrel of a human: his ancestry is a mix of Irish, Maltese and Indigenous Australian.Regardless to an annoying tendency to waffle on unintelligibly as he attempts to explain various tangential dissertations related to media and pop culture, Starrs has somehow passed all examinations and succeeded in graduating from six Australian universities. His qualifications include two Masters degrees and a PhD from highly reputable Australian universities. Despite such a thorough education his verbal diarrhoea has yet to be cured.His hobbies include natural bodybuilding (he was runner-up in the Over 50s class at the NABBA 2013 Mr Australia titles and a competitor in the NABBA 2015 Over 50s Amateur Mr Universe), traveling, cooking/eating good food and, duh: writing.His most recent e-novel "The Roaring of the Bulls" (Starrs via Kindle, 2017) was preceded by "Bollywood Extras" (Starrs via Smashwords, 2012) which was preceded by the paperback and e-novel "That Blackfella Bloodsucka Dance!" (First Edition: Just Fiction Edition, Germany, 2011. Second Edition: Starrs via Smashwords, 2012). This early epoch of Starrs' writing life included the creation of unique "Ugly drivel" such as a collection of writing for the theatre entitled "Suicide Plays" (VDM Verlag, Germany, 2009). His first full-length novel was "I Woke Up Feeling Thailand" (First Edition: Sid Harta Publishing, Australia, 2004. Second Edition: Starrs via Smashwords, 2012).Dr Starrs has published extensively in non-fiction too, with many peer-reviewed film, media and/or cultural studies journal articles and book chapters to his name, as well as the academic textbook "The Films of Rolf de Heer" (First Edition: VDM Verlag, Germany 2009. Third Edition: Starrs via Smashwords, 2015).In 2015 and 2016 he won the Dungala-Kaeila Prize for two selections of creative writing from "The Roaring of the Bulls". In 2015 he won the 'Overall Best Production' award at the Manila Short + Sweet International Theatre Festival for his stage-play "Voicing up the Marriage".Would-be stalkers please note: Dr Starrs can be difficult to physically locate, sometimes. When not sequestered away in some wretched garret, filthy and unshaven (but ever so happily writing), he can usually be found teaching English Literature/Creative Writing, Cinema or Media Studies at various Australian universities or somewhere in deepest, darkest - and preferably - weirdest South-East Asia. And would-be stalkers please also note: Dr Starrs has a very efficient bodyguard, his beautiful, strong Filipina wife, Melissa Starrs.

Review by:
Sarah Mitra
on Jan. 20, 2013 :
This is vintage Dr Starrs! And at times quite amusing, too. In fact, this novel should be required reading for anybody planning to travel to Thailand for the express purposes of a career in English teaching!
(reviewed 3 days after purchase)